April 14, 2003

Why I Still Have An IT Job

Check it out; see that screen on the right? It's a screenshot from the PDA (Palm/PocketPC/Symbian OS) application I am writing at work.

Let's say you are an Intake Nurse at a major NY area hospital filling out this information on a handheld unit for a new patient. I bet you REEEEEEEALLY want to spend an hour Graffiti-ing/mini-keyboard-ing that information in there just for one lousy patient, right?

If you are filling in the name, just tap the Nm next to the box and...

VOILA!!! Up pops the handiest possible keyboard. Tap the name in using the nice big keys, then tap the Nm again and FWIP, you are back to the first screen above.

The best part is the name field didn't move at all, so YOUR EYE NATURALLY MOVES DOWN TO THE NEXT FIELD (address)! This means your brain does not have to do that extra step of relocating where you are in the form and trying to decide what data is needed next.

"But what happens when the field is in the middle of the screen?"

Simple. To see what happens, tap Cty and...

Voila again.

Now we are down to the "City" field. The input field maintains its exact position and size; the keyboard moves around it to accomodate.

My opinion is that this is the best way yet conceived anywhere for entering free text into a handheld device, particularly if you are standing or otherwise mobile and can't use one of those full-size keyboard attachments. The letters just fly by, you don't even have to think about it.